ShawneeDispatch.com

The city of Shawnee is trying to adjust its list of important projects to complete in the next few years to make sure those projects are fully funded.

To plan only for projects the city can afford to fund, the Capital Improvement Program has been cut down yet again for 2009-2014. Normally discussed during the process to approve the next year’s city budget, Shawnee City Council members on the Finance & Administration Committee were set to revisit the plan Tuesday to review items that city staff members recommended to be cut or reduced to meet the city’s budget projections.

The Capital Improvement Program is the city’s “to-do” list; a six-year plan for large municipal projects that residents and city officials think are necessary. It can include street and stormwater drainage improvements as well as equipment purchases, parks and municipal buildings.

Most of these projects cost too much for the city to pay out of its yearly budget, so to fund the projects, the city issues General Obligation Bonds, which must be paid back in annual installments, usually over a 15-year period.

Placement on the list doesn’t ensure a project will be completed, however; some items, like a western pool, have been pushed back continually. Since the city’s budget first began to tighten in 2006, the CIP has been constantly changing.

Results from Tuesday’s meeting weren’t available at press time, but on the revised plan, two large projects were completely removed; one was delayed for four years; and two were reduced in scope and price.

A project to widen Shawnee Mission Parkway to six lanes from Pflumm to Lackman was moved from 2010 to 2014. The estimated $13 million project had been added to the CIP two years ago to take advantage of federal highway and county funds projected to be available in 2010 that would cover about 65 percent the cost.

Doug Wesselschmidt, city engineer, said that the city still planned to apply for the same funds to help pay for the project in 2014.

Budgets for improvements to Monticello Road from Johnson Drive to 66th Street and for remodeling the former Police Department were reduced.

When the city planned to build the northern portion of Monticello as a four-lane road, it had estimated the project at $8.5 million, planning to apply for $3.1 million in funding from the County Assistance Road System program. Now, the city is moving forward with a study to find methods of controlling traffic without widening the entire length of the road, and the project is listed at $3.5 million, with $1.5 million in CARS funding.

With the former Police Department space in the Safety Center vacated, the city had planned on a $2.7 million remodel of the building next year, to expand space for the Fire Department and move some employees from City Hall. The project has now been pushed to 2010 and reduced to $1 million.

Removed from the program entirely were the much-debated improvements to Johnson Drive from Interstate 435 to Renner Road, which the Council approved in 2005 as part of improvements to the intersection of Johnson Drive and Renner. After a signal was put in at the intersection, the Council had decided to delay the $1.2 million leveling of Johnson Drive to 2011, though engineering and design work to do so had already been completed.

Also removed entirely were improvements to Midland Drive from I-435 to Barker Road, which the Council debated in depth earlier this year when some Council members expressed concern for the safety of cyclists and pedestrians along the road. The project was scheduled for 2014, estimated at $11.4 million. Wesselschmidt said the city had planned to apply for $4.2 million in CARS funding for the project.

Comments